Nancy Tison owns a wardrobe of golf clothes. Not for playing golf. For meeting and following professional golfers, their careers and their families. Tison, who lives in Newport News, and sister, Barbara McNeal, who resides in Florida, call themselves the PGA Tour "Grandma Groupies." They also follow Nationwide and Champions tournaments. "I own a set of clubs and I have played, but not that much," confesses Tison, 73. For the past 15 years, the sisters have toured the country, going to as many professional golf tournaments as time, energy and distance allows.

A Major League Baseball all-star, three-time PGA Tour winner and football walk-on turned All-American headline the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame's class of 2013. The six honorees announced Saturday: Seattle Mariners pitcher Joe Saunders, professional golfer Johnson Wagner, former NFL defensive lineman John Engelberger, basketball forward Bobby Beecher, former Virginia State Open tennis champion Jimmy Milley and softball player Clarisa Crowell. Induction ceremonies are scheduled for Nov. 15, with the class appearing at halftime of the next day's home football game against Maryland.

A Major League Baseball all-star, three-time PGA Tour winner and football walk-on turned All-American headline the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame's class of 2013. The six honorees announced Saturday: Seattle Mariners pitcher Joe Saunders, professional golfer Johnson Wagner, former NFL defensive lineman John Engelberger, basketball forward Bobby Beecher, former Virginia State Open tennis champion Jimmy Milley and softball player Clarisa Crowell. Induction ceremonies are scheduled for Nov. 15, with the class appearing at halftime of the next day's home football game against Maryland.

Like any youngster should, Josh Speight set the highest of goals. Golf was his passion, and it served him well at Gloucester High and Methodist University. So after graduating college, Speight wanted to play on the PGA Tour. But reality intervened. Funds were short, sponsors weren't lining up and he wanted to have a family. The Tour wasn't going to happen, at least not right away, but Speight found a way to stay in the game by becoming a club pro - first at Hell's Point in Virginia Beach, and now at Viniterra in New Kent.

Ben Hogan won the 1950 U.S. Open less than two years after his legs were shattered in an automobile accident; Ken Venturi won the '64 Open in blast furnace conditions that nearly killed him; Casey Martin won last week's Nike Lakeland Classic despite a congenital circulatory disorder in his right leg. Heroic efforts all, with one difference: Casey Martin, courtesy of a temporary court injunction, rode in a cart. Martin says he cannot walk without a limp and intense pain. The PGA Tour says golfers competing on the Nike and PGA circuits must walk.

Charles Howell and Ian Poulter were acting like boys comparing their toys after Christmas. Poulter, an emerging star on the European Tour and the 42nd-ranked player in the world, eyeballed Howell's flashy Range Rover SUV -- replete with chromed spinner rims -- and began peppering him with questions about installing stereo equipment, video-game hookups and DVD players. Then they moved on to big-ticket items. Given the weakness of the dollar abroad, Poulter, an Englishman, explained to Howell that now's the ideal time for European players to invest in pricier American fare, like real estate.

Skeeter Heath of Williamsburg isn't giving up. He's going to take another shot at playing on the PGA tour. The tour itch has been getting bigger by the day, and he can't wait until November when he'll begin trying to regain his PGA playing privileges at the Tour Qualifying School in Florida. That itch wasn't evident for several years. "My last year on tour was in 1985 when I lost my card," Heath said. "I didn't even try to get my card back from 1985 to 1992 because I didn't enjoy playing.

The disabled see a pioneer. The young see a role model. Casey Martin's vision isn't nearly as deep. When Martin gazes in the mirror, he sees a struggling, 25-year-old golfer chasing improbable dreams such as U.S. Open championships, Masters green jackets, showdowns with Tiger Woods and piles upon piles of cash. Alas, Martin knows his career will never be so simple. He understands the relentless deterioration of his right leg and his acclaimed legal battle with the PGA Tour make him just as unique as Palmer, Nicklaus and Woods.

Maybe when it's over, after the winner has the big check on the 18th green, after the last TV truck has pulled out, after the last dash to the airport by a player, maybe then Johnnie Bender will allow herself time to reflect on the past two decades. Now is the wrong time for sentiment. The Michelob Championship tournament director juggles a hundred things heading into tournament week, from volunteers to sponsors to charities to courtesy cars to player accommodations and dozens of things few people see. "I don't know that I would call it sadness," Bender said recently, looking forward to the final tournament.

The 1997 Michelob Championship's shift to fall will complete a circle of sorts for Kingsmill's annual PGA Tour stop. In August 1980, Anheuser-Busch announced it was moving its 1981 Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic from Silverado Country Club in Napa, Calif., to Kingsmill. The tournament was to keep its late September playing dates. Three months later, a shuffle in Philadelphia changed that. The Philadelphia Classic was scheduled to join the PGA Tour in 1981. It had July 23-26 dates in hand when sponsors and organizers decided to delay the inaugural event a year.

Nancy Tison owns a wardrobe of golf clothes. Not for playing golf. For meeting and following professional golfers, their careers and their families. Tison, who lives in Newport News, and sister, Barbara McNeal, who resides in Florida, call themselves the PGA Tour "Grandma Groupies." They also follow Nationwide and Champions tournaments. "I own a set of clubs and I have played, but not that much," confesses Tison, 73. For the past 15 years, the sisters have toured the country, going to as many professional golf tournaments as time, energy and distance allows.

John Daly 's confidential personnel file at the PGA Tour became a matter of public record recently and uncovered a startling number of attempts by Tour officials to help him. The 456-page file, obtained by The Florida Times-Union, covers the years 1991-2008 and revealed that the tour, on seven occasions, ordered Daly to undergo counseling or enter alcohol rehabilitation. It also said Daly was placed on Tour probation six times, was cited 11 times for "conduct unbecoming a professional," was flagged 21 times for "failure to give best efforts" and accrued fines of nearly $100,000.

Brandt Snedeker is back to playing like the rising young PGA Tour star he was supposed to be. The 29-year-old Tennessean rolled in his sixth birdie of the day on No. 17 and finished at 14-under 199 for a one-shot lead over Scott Piercy in the Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, Ariz. Snedeker shot a 66, while Piercy had a pair of eagles en route to a 65 in the third round Saturday amid a loud, rowdy crowd estimated at just over 121,000. Many were on hand for the party as much, or more than, for the tournament.

Rampant speculation on Tiger Woods ' returning from his indefinite break to compete at the Match Play Championship ended quietly Friday when the PGA Tour released its 64-man field minus the No. 1 player. Steve Stricker is the No. 1 seed. ... Paul Goydos is among six players tied for the lead at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. He rushed back to the parking lot Friday to get his golf spikes, then shot his best round at Spyglass Hill, a 7-under 65. That put him at 10-under 132 along with Dustin Johnson, Alex Cejka, Bryce Molder and Matt Jones . David Duval was one shot behind.

In a tournament everyone expected him to win, Steve Stricker was trying not to lose. Instead of firing at flags and trying to make birdies, which allowed him to build a six-shot lead at Riviera, he suddenly found himself playing it safe and trying not to make bogeys. Instead of having a chance to break the 25-year-old tournament scoring record, he feared matching a PGA Tour record for blowing the biggest lead. The Northern Trust Open ultimately ended Sunday the way everyone thought it would — Stricker in tears after another victory.

John Daly missed another cut and said Friday he was done with golf. Whether that meant for the rest of the West Coast swing or the rest of his career would not be determined until the two-time major champion stopped going to PGA Tour events. Daly shot 71 at Torrey Pines in the San Diego area and missed the cut by nine shots. Stopped in the parking lot by a crew from Golf Channel, which is filming his reality show, Daly said in a series of clipped responses, "I'm done.

It seemed too good to be true, and it was. Carl Paulson was all set to make his PGA Tour debut in the Hawaiian Open until a funny thing happened: he was told, after flying all the way out there, that he had been bumped. But welcome to the islands anyway. "I called Thursday afternoon and I was in, then I get there and I'm the sixth alternate," said Paulson, a rookie from Virginia Beach. "It cost me a good bit of money, but I turned it into a nice vacation and had a great time.

Greg Norman and Nick Price travel in their own jets. Payne Stewart drives a red Porsche convertible. Steve Brodie almost went broke. Steve Lamontagne has stayed in hotels fit for a dog. Welcome to the PGA Tour, where lifestyles are as diverse as Pearl Jam and Pearl Buck. The glamour players live in luxury. The proletariat struggle to make ends meet. Tour commissioner Tim Finchem surveyed this landscape and concluded that players are underpaid, especially when compared to other professional athletes.

Ryan Palmer went from anxious to overwhelmed in the 50 feet his chip shot traveled on the final hole until it struck the pin and settled inches away, leading to a one-shot victory Sunday in the Sony Open in Honolulu. Palmer, locked in a duel with Robert Allenby to the end at Waialae, came up short of the green on the par-5 18th and faced a delicate chip. Allenby went over the green and pitched to just inside 10 feet. Palmer thought his chip was a smidgen too hard, and he tumbled backward in relief when the ball struck the pin squarely.

Deb Wakenight, mother of Christine Slawson, is delighted to announce the engagement of her daughter to Jack Creveling, son of John and Betsy Creveling of Gainesville, Fla. Christine is a graduate of James Madison University and is employed as a showroom sales consultant for Ferguson Enterprises working in Jacksonville, Fla. Jack graduated from the University of Florida and is an assistant superintendent for the PGA tour at the TPC Sawgrass Players...